1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates, in general, to a herb medicine extract-containing non-bleeding striped toothpaste and, more particularly, to a herb medicine extract-containing striped dentifrice composition which exhibits no bleeding of colorant from one component into the other and suppresses the formation of plaque.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various prior techniques for striped dentifrice products containing, for example, water soluble dyes are known, including U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,358,437, 4,569,534 and 4,487,757. U.S. Pat. No. 4,358,437 discloses a striped toothpaste which comprises a transparent gel base and an opaque paste stripe containing calcium carbonate abrasive and meta-silicate ingredient. U.S. Pat. No. 4,568,534 discloses a striped dentifrice comprising an aqueous striping composition containing a pH sensitive dye and a gelling agent mixture of sodium carboxymethyl cellulose and calcium carrageenan, and a white anhydrous toothpaste formulation. U.S. Pat. No. 4,487,757 suggests a striped toothpaste extruded from a tube comprising two separate portions one of which contains sodium bicarbonate particles stabilized by a compatible water insoluble polishing agent such as calcium carbonate, the other portion being in an acid pH and containing an acid and 0.001 to 0.1% of a coloring agent which is a 1% aqueous dye solution.
However, the water-soluble dyes contained in the toothpastes of the above-cited patents are more likely to be bled or leak from the colored dentifrice stripe into the toothpaste base if the toothpastes are stored at high temperatures for a long time, thereby degrading the quality of article.
To avoid this problem, use of synthetic pigments such as phthalocyanine in a colored dentifrice stripe has been proposed as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,456,585 and 4,518,578. These synthetic phthalocyanine pigments, however, are not allowed for use in dentifrices in many countries because they may be harmful to human body. Therefore, alternative non-bleeding colorant and/or formulation is needed.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,928,559 and 4,007,259 disclose speckled dentifrices wherein the speckles contain a colorant blended with the water insoluble thermoplastic polymer particles such as polyethylene, said colorant being a pigment such as ultramarine blue, ferric oxide, metallic lakes and the like, with the aim of preventing the bleeding of coloring materials. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,069,311 and 4,069,312 also disclose striped dentifrices wherein said stripes are thermoplastic binder material containing colorants including any physiologically acceptable dye or pigment such as inorganic pigments, organic dyes, metallic lakes thereof, chlorophyll and carotene.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,980,767 discloses a striped toothpaste consisting of a main transparent gel body free of dental abrasive and containing humectant, thickening agent such as cellulose esters or carrageenan: and a secondary gel body containing a dental abrasive, humectants, thickening agent, detergent and optionally an insoluble coloring material in the form of a contrasting stripe within the main gel body.
European Pat. Publication No. 0 331 617 A1 discloses a striped dentifrice consisting essentially of a combination of two dentifrice components: one translucent gel colored dentifrice component comprising an organic pigment, such as .beta.-carotene or chlorophyll, and xanthan gum as the sole gelling agent, and an opaque white paste dentifrice component composing a cellulase resistant gelling agent, such as a kappa carrageenan mixture, in a liquid vehicle containing different dentally acceptable polishing agents.
The prior art non-bleeding striped toothpastes, however, are in difficulty in showing clear stripe and appropriately distributing the different dentifrice components in squeezing the toothpaste tubes because the striping portion and the base portion are different from each other in flowing property, which is attributable to the difference in formulation therebetween.
The prior art also discloses dentifrices containing herb medicine extracts known to be suppressive of the formation of plaque, as disclosed in Korean Pat. Appln. No. 93-9048 to the present applicant, Korean Pat. Publication No. 91-1919, Korean Pat. Publication Laid-Open No. 91-18007, Japanese Pat. Publication Laid-Open Nos. Sho 56-83415, Sho 57-58610, Sho 57-58611, Sho 57-58612, Sho 57-58513, Sho 57-56415, Sho 59-152313 and Hei 1-151512, and Japanese Pat. Publication Nos. Hei 3-66283 and Hei 3-32524. Most of the herb medicine extracts described in the above-cited patents contain considerable amounts of coloring materials in addition to pigments. When these herb medicine extracts are used for striped toothpastes, the bleeding of the coloring materials or pigments readily occurs in the existing toothpaste formulations. The colorants can be laboratorially separated from herbs, which, however, costs too much, making it difficult to apply the herb extracts in commercial practice. In addition, useful ingredients which suppress the formation of plaque and may also be removed when separating the colorants. Owing to these reasons, the use of such herb extracts in striped dentifrices has not been reported, thus far.
In particular, Korean Pat. Appln. No. 93-9048 discloses an invention that relates to products for oral cavities, such as plaque formation inhibiting toothpaste, mouthwash, chewing gum, and gingival massage cream. More specifically, selected plaque formation inhibiting ingredients includes Taraxacum extract or, other than Taraxacum extract, Lonicera flower extract, Scutellaria root extract, Gardenia fruit extract, Pulsatilla root extract, Pueraria root extract or plant extract selected from the combination of two or more of those.
This reference teaches that it is known that primary diseases developed in teeth or areas around teeth are tooth decay and periodontal disease, and the main cause of such disease is dental plaque, and that extracts of plants of various species have been used to solve these problems. Experiments are disclosed on the antibiotic property and plaque formation inhibiting ability of extracts from many different species of plants that have been publicized or not publicized in prior arts of the present field and other related reference for long period of time. It was found that extract from Taraxacum whose uses were not known in the disclosed field inhibits the growth of and disinfects streptococcus mutants, and therefore, prevents the formation of plaque and better effect is shown when Taraxacum extract is combined with other certain plant extracts.
Korean Pat. Appln. No. 93-9048 thus discloses a composition for oral cavity that includes Taraxacum extract as plaque formation inhibiting ingredient. Furthermore, the reference discloses a composition for oral cavity that includes, other than Taraxacum extract, Lonicera flower extract, Scutellaria root extract, Gardenia fruit extract, Pulsatilla root extract, Pueraria root extract or plant extract selected from the combination of two or more of those.
Plant extracts are also disclosed that are obtained from the following plants: Taraxacum used is the whole plant body of Taraxacum platycarpum H, Dahlstedt or Carduaceae, and has antibiotic and anti-Eumycetes effect, therefore, it is used in eastern medicine for many kinds of inflammation; Lonicera flower used is the flower of Lonicera japonica Thunberg, and has antibiotic, antivirus, anti-Eumycetes and astringent effect, therefore, it is used in eastern medicine for inflammation in mouth, bleeding caused by inflammation, and swelling and used as general inflammation medicine when combined with Taraxacum; Scutellarai root is peeled root of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi and has antibiotic, antivirus, anti-Eumycetes and sedative effect, therefore, it is used in eastern medicine for inflammation, tooth ache, oral cavity ache, tooth decay, and periodontitis by combining with Gardenia and etc.; Gardenia fruit used is a fruit of Gardenia jasminoides Ellis tree or Rubia Akane and has stopping of bleeding, antibiotic and sedative effect, therefore it is used in eastern medicine for many kinds of inflammation including inflammation inside a mouth and bleeding caused by inflammation; Pulsatilla root used is a root of Pulsatilla koreana Nakai or Carduaceae and has antibiotic, anti-Eumycetes and astringent effect, therefore, it is used in eastern medicine for tooth ache and many kinds of inflammation; and Pueraria root is a peeled root of Pueraria thunbergiana Bentham and has pain-alleviating and anti-inflammation effect, therefore, it is used in eastern medicine for tooth ache and inflammation inside of mouth by combining with Scutellaria root and etc.
These extracts of medicine plants are disclosed as being produced by the disclosed method, and it is disclosed that it is preferred that volatile solvents such as ethanol and methanol of the amount 10 times as large as the amount of extracts are applied and extracted by boiling or reflux, filtered, and concentrated under reduced pressure to obtain concentrates.
As disclosed by Korean Pat. Appln. No. 93-9048, the composition for oral cavity is effective to use Taraxacum by itself only, but it is preferable to use a combination of Taraxacum and other plants in aspects of antibiotic and plaque formation inhibiting ability.
The disclosed mixing ratio of plant extracts among the ingredients for oral cavity of the reference is 0.001-10 weight % on the basis of dry-hardened substance, preferably 0.005-5 weight %. If it is mixed with the ratio of below 0.001%, tooth decay or periodontal disease inhibiting effect will be too weak. If it is mixed with the ratio of above 10%, it will not be suitable to be used as the composition for oral cavity because of the original color and bitter taste of the plants'own.
The composition for oral cavity disclosed by Korean Pat. Appln. No. 93-9048 is produced by using appropriate ingredients depending on types of the products. For example, in case of toothpaste ingredients, ingredients included in conventional toothpaste are included, and for these ingredients abrasives such as alumina, silica gel, precipitated silica, Calcium carbonate, Calcium monohydrophosphate and Sodium bicarbonate, humectants such as sorbitol, glycerin and polyethylene glycol, foaming agents such as Sodium lauryl sulfate, Sodium lauryl sarcosinate and Dodecylbenzene sulfonate, binding agents such as carboxymethyl cellulose, Carageenan, Polyacrylate, sweetening agents such as saccharine, aspartame and stevioside, antiseptics such as para-oxy methyl benzoate and para-oxy propyl benzoate, medicine ingredients such as Sodium fluoride, Sodium fluorophosphate, Allantoin, Zinc salt, vitamins, salts, Tranexamic acid, Strontium Chloride and Trichlon, flavors, pigments and pH controller are used. Other compositions for oral cavity may be produced by selecting suitable ingredients depending on types and objectives and then using conventional method with the disclosed plant extracts.
As an example, Korean Pat. Appln. No. 93-9048 discloses a test for testing antibiotic ability of plant extracts. To 30 g of dried and sliced Taraxacum, Lonicera flower, Scutellaria root, Gardenia fruit, Pulsatilla root and Pueraria root, 300 ml of distilled water, ethanol or methanol was applied, extracted by boiling or reflux for 3 hours, and the obtained liquid was filtered with filtering paper, and then centrifuged. This solution was concentrated under reduced pressure, and dried substances shown in Table 1 were obtained.
Separate obtained extracts or mixture of obtained extracts with appropriate concentration was applied to Brain Heart Infusion cultivation paper, streptococcus mutants was inoculated, and cultivated in 37 degrees Celsius for 24 hours. Then the cultivated bacteria were dispersed uniformly with a mixer, and the absorbency (A.sub.R) was measured using spectrophotometer (DU series 60 by Beckman, wavelength of 550 nm). Also, one that does not include plant extracts was set to be a control experiment and the absorbency in this case (A.sub.B) was measured. Then antibiotic ability and bacteria growth inhibiting ability were compared and estimated. The estimated results are shown in Tables 2 and 3 below. ##EQU1##
TABLE 1 ______________________________________ The amount of plant extracts obtained (from 30 g) Plants Gar- Pul- Extracting denia Lonicera Scutellaria satilla Pueraria Solvent Taraxacum Fruit Flower Root Root Root ______________________________________ Ethanol 3.6 6.1 4.7 8.6 6.2 5.8 Methanol 3.2 5.5 4.3 7.6 5.6 4.9 ______________________________________
TABLE 2 ______________________________________ Bacteria growth inhibiting rate of plant extracts (%) Inhibiting Rate Plants 250 ppm (methanol) 250 ppm (ethanol) ______________________________________ Taraxacum 37 42 Gardenia fruit 26 31 Lonicera flower 14 11 Scutellaria root 13 14 Pulsatilla root 12 17 Pueraria root 23 20 ______________________________________
TABLE 3 ______________________________________ Bacteria growth inhibiting rate and activating rate of combinations of plant extracts Extracting Solvent (Ethanol) Plants Inhibiting Rate (%) Rise Rate (%) ______________________________________ Taraxacum + Gardenia fruit 98 24 Gardenia fruit + Lonicera flower 61 19 Gardenia fruit + Scutellaria 65 20 Taraxacum + Pulsatilla root 81 22 Taraxacum + Pueraria root 86 24 ______________________________________ *Rise rate is a value after subtracting the sum of inhibiting rate % (total concentration: 500 ppm) of ethanol extracts from inhibiting rate % (total concentration: 500 ppm) of combination of plant extracts.
From Table 2 above, it is shown that antibiotic ability of Taraxacum is the best and from Table 3 the combination of Taraxacum extracts and another plant extract shows much better antibiotic ability than Taraxacum extract itself. Thus, it is found that the rise effect is when Taraxacum extract was combined with extracts of Taraxacum, Lonicera flower, Scutellaria root, Gardenia fruit, Pulsatilla root and Pueraria root.
As another example, Korean Pat. Appln. No. 93-9048 discloses an experiment on plaque formation inhibition. Plant extracts obtained by the first example above were mixed in test tube with brain heart infusion cultivation paper whose 2% is a sugar, and streptococcus mutants cultivated beforehand were inoculated. This was cultivated anaerobically in 37 degrees Celsius for 24 hours, and plaque was formed. Plaque and bacteria body in this mixture were dispersed with mixer and supersonic crusher, and the absorbency was measured with spectrophotometer (wavelength of 550). Also, one that does not include plant extracts was set to be a control experiment and the absorbency in this case (A.sub.B) was measured. Then antibiotic ability and bacteria growth inhibiting ability were compared and estimated. The estimated results are shown in Table 4 below. ##EQU2##
TABLE 4 ______________________________________ Plaque formation inhibiting rate of plant extracts Mixing Total Extracting Inhibiting Plant Name Ratio Concentration Solvent Rate ______________________________________ Taraxacum + 1:2 150 Methanol 41 Gardenia fruit 300 Ethanol 75 Taraxacum + 1:3 200 Ethanol 52 Lonicera 400 Ethanol 84 Taraxacum + 1:1 200 Ethanol 35 Scutellaria 400 Ethanol 68 ______________________________________
From Table 4 above, the combination of plant extracts has excellent plaque formation inhibiting effect. Also, excellent plaque formation inhibiting effect is shown even with a different mixing ratio.